California ruling makes waves in Valley

Supporters of pledge are dismayed

others respect interpretation.

June 27, 2002|By Elizabeth Bartolai and Elliot Grossman Of The Morning Call

When Robert Watkins of Allentown heard about a federal appeals court ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because of the words "under God," he came up with a plan.

"If they take out the Pledge of Allegiance, I'm yanking [my son] out of the public school and putting him in Catholic school," Watkins said Wednesday.

At the start of the Lehigh County commissioners' meeting, Chairman Percy H. Dougherty led the pledge. "Under God" was recited louder than the other words. And when the pledge was over, Dougherty said, "Let them throw us in jail."

John E. Freund III, solicitor for several area school districts including Allentown, Northwestern Lehigh, Northampton Area and Pocono Mountain, won't advise administrators to have students stop reciting the pledge this fall.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affects only the nine Western states covered by that court, he said. "No one is beating down the door to raise this issue [in Pennsylvania]," Freund said.

California requires schoolchildren to recite the pledge, while Pennsylvania students may skip saying it for reasons of personal belief or religious conviction, he said.

Nevertheless, Margaret Downey, a Chester County atheist, said the children of atheists feel "marginalized" when the pledge is recited because they can't say it due to their beliefs. Downey, who hailed the court ruling, heads the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, which won a federal court order to have the Ten Commandments removed from the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester.

Jim Hirst, a Navy veteran in Allentown, worried that the decision highlights a trend away from what the country's forefathers envisioned. "This is not the land of the free and home of the brave anymore," he said.

The Rev. Christine Nelson, executive director of the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, said removing the phrase "under God" from the pledge would make it less meaningful. "[The pledge] has been a long-standing tradition in our country that has been valued by many, many people from all walks of life. It's an integral part of public life," she said. "Taking that away is taking away a strong piece of who we are as a country."

But Robert Puharic, an atheist who lives in Whitehall Township, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the ruling. The phrase "under God" breaches the secular nature of American government, he said. "I think secularism is a great advantage in maintaining a free and democratic society," he said.

Rabbi Allen Juda of Congregation Brith Sholom in Hanover Township, Northampton County, said it was his impression that the drafters of the Constitution did not want religion removed from society. They just wanted no single religion to be dominant, he said, thus they would not oppose keeping "under God."

Paula Clark of Coopersburg is a Christian mother of two young boys. She wants to keep the words "under God" because they've become a tradition, not because of her religious conviction. "I'm firmly a believer in the separation of church and state," she said.